Forest Green are planning to sue Bolton Wanderers for £1million for an alleged breach of contract, according to Dale Vince.

The Championship club agreed to pay Rovers a six-figure fee for Christian Doidge when they signed him on an initial loan deal at the end of August but the striker has now returned to the New Lawn.

There is a dispute between the two clubs with Bolton issuing a statement earlier saying they hope to resolve the situation after Vince claimed Wanderers are not able to honour their contract having been placed under a transfer embargo due to a breach of financial rules.

Vince also explained that Forest Green have invoiced Bolton for Doidge’s wages during his four-month loan spell at the club but haven’t received any money, meaning they have effectively been paying for a player who hasn’t been playing for them.

Christian Doidge and Joe Morrell

“They took our top striker on the last day in August and haven’t paid a penny for half a season,” Vince told Gloucestershire Live.

“We are going to sue them for breach of contract and extract one million pounds through the courts.”

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Vince first got an inkling that there was something not right with the deal on New Year’s Day.

He said: “The day before the transfer was due to go through our club secretary got in touch to make sure everything was all right and the answer was unconvincing.

“The answer should’ve been a simple ‘yes, we’re doing it tomorrow’, but it wasn’t. They said ‘we’ll get back to you’.

“It’s a transfer agreement and we expected it to be honoured.”

Vince has also dismissed Bolton’s statement in which they said they are “hopeful that a satisfactory resolution will follow”, comparing it to Prime Minister Theresa May’s negotiations with the European Union over Brexit, and said Forest Green are now looking to put the episode behind them.

He said: “It made me laugh. It reminded me of Theresa May carrying on in denial.

Dale Vince (Image: Credit)

“They’re just spinning a line to people, which is par for the course.

“We’ve moved on. We are in the January transfer window, we’ve got business to be done. We needed some certainty.”

Doidge had reportedly bought a house in Bolton recently but Vince has backed him to bounce back from the disappointment and help Rovers in their promotion bid from League Two.

“Obviously he’s disappointed as you you expect but determined to put it behind him and get playing again,” said Vince.

“It’s been really disruptive for him and us as a club but hopefully now we can crack on and get into League One and just move on.”

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With Fifa rules not allowing players to play for more than two clubs during a season, Forest Green will not be able to sell Doidge to another club and they will now alter their plans for the remainder of the January transfer window.

“We might have looked for one more forward but now we are not,” said Vince.

“We couldn’t have got a better signing so it’s changed our plans but in a good way.”